Dragon Ball: Mystical Adventure
is the third Dragon Ball movie. Originally premiering on July 9 at the 1988 Toei Cartoon Festival (along with movies from the Tatakae!! Ramenman, Bikkuriman, and Kamen Rider Black series). Summary Goku and Krillin having finished their training with Master Roshi are told about a World Martial Arts Tournament that is to be held in the country of Mifan and they are enthusiastic to enter. Meanwhile, the Emperor of Mifan, Chiaotzu, is trying to find his lost "Ran Ran". The minister, Shen, has Emperor Pilaf and his gang work on a Global Dragon Radar in order to locate the Dragon Balls and forcibly takes it from him when he tries to renegotiate their payment. Minister Shen and General Tao claim that they will use the wish from Shenron to locate Ran Ran, but are actually planning, with Tien Shinhan's help, to kill Chiaotzu and take over the country though Tien is not aware of their plan to kill Chiaotzu. Lieutenant Blue announces that Ran Ran is being held in Master Shen's room but he is killed by General Tao for such an accusation. In their homeland Bora and Upa have located the final Dragon Ball and hide it from the Soldiers destroying their land in their attempt to find it. They decide to take it to Mifan to use it to demand that Mifan's soldiers be forced to leave the Sacred Land of Korin. Bora is tricked into entering the tournament (the winner of the tournament will be granted one wish by Chiaotzu). During the tournament, Yamcha, who has also decided to enter to test his strength, becomes the champion briefly before Bora steps in to face him. After Master Roshi distracts Yamcha, Bora is able to land a hit on him to knock him out of bounds to become Champion himself. He is then challenged by General Tao who easily overpowers him and kills him by throwing him into a statues spear. Out of anger Goku attacks Tao but his Kamehameha proves to have no effect on him. Tao then uses his Dodon Ray to blast Goku flying all the way into Korin Tower and thinks he died in the attack, however the Dragon Ball in his shirt protected him. Goku then meets Korin who tells him that he lost because he lost his cool and that he must remain calm if he wants to win. Shen is informed that the final Dragon Ball he needs was in Goku's body and General Tao heads out to recover the ball. While on the fast track to Goku and over the slies of Penguin Village, Arale Norimaki sees down and grounds him by throwing a large boulder at him. At this time Goku shows up on the Nimbus and Goku defeats and kills General Tao with Arale's help. Bulma, Oolong, Launch and Puar are looking for the other six Dragon Balls, so Bulma can make a wish. However, when they try to grab the Dragon Ball's that are located in the palace, they are ambushed by Shen and his guards. Bulma barely makes it out with Yamcha's help and they jump into the moat surrounding Chiaotzu's castle, but accidentally drop their Dragon Balls into a deep fissure. Shen having round up the others along with Chiaotzu orders Tien Shinhan to kill the emperor however he realizes that he likes Chiaotzu too much, and does not kill his friend. Angry Shen goes to kill Chiaotzu instead but Tien blows away Master Shen with a Tri-Beam. Goku throws the final ball into the moat where he then asks Shenron to resurrect Bora who is reunited with his son. Timeline placement The movie seemingly takes place during Goku and Krillin's training under Master Roshi. Releases In 2006, Toei Animation released Mystical Adventure as part of the final Dragon Box DVD set, which included all four Dragon Ball films and thirteen Dragon Ball Z films. These were presented in a new widescreen transfer from the original negatives with a 16:9 aspect ratio that was matted from the original 4:3 aspect ratio. Harmony Gold USA broadcast their dub of this film and Curse of the Blood Rubies as a double feature on WPSG Philly 57 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and on other channels and cable systems in a select few test markets. It was also likely to have been released on home video in the early 90s. It was not widely noticed and went under the radar. Their dub changed the names of some of the characters and had parts of it censored, and the opening and ending sequence changed with; instead of the first Japanese sequence they used the second Japanese sequence, with the Japanese katakana removed from the Dragon Balls, the Japanese credits removed and replaced with the Harmony Gold credits, and they changed some of the dialog from the Japanese intro. The ending was changed from the Japanese ending to show a still picture of Goku flying away from Shenron (known as Dragon God in the Harmony Gold dub) taken from the intro, and using the intro theme song instead of the Japanese ending theme with the Harmony Gold credits. The script was more faithful to the Japanese script and all the background music was kept the same. In 2000, Funimation released the movie with a new dub to VHS and bilingual DVD. However, the opening and ending sequences were replaced with the TV series opening and ending. Funimation quietly reissued a new version of the movie with the original Japanese opening and ending, but this time some of the frames froze where Japanese text was originally displayed. On December 6, 2005, the movie was re-released on DVD both individually and in a box set with Sleeping Princess in Devil's Castle and The Path to Power. This 3-disc box set was re-released in a thinpak variety on February 12, 2008. On February 8, 2011, FUNimation re-released all four Dragon Ball movies in a new thinpak DVD collection with the opening and ending sequences restored to the original Japanese footage, but this version featured no apparent English credits. In the summer of 2005, Toonami UK aired another dub of the movie done by AB Groupe in France. It retained the title Mystical Adventure since it was still the literal translation. Some European releases of the movie include this English dub as an alternate audio track, although it is nearly impossible to tell without any known copies in circulation. As with other dubs released by AB Groupe, the entire voice cast is unknown. There was also another English dub released exclusively to Video CD in Malaysia by Speedy Video Distributors Sdn. Bhd.. This version is very obscure, although recently a clip from this dub has turned up on YouTube. Madman Entertainment released the film on DVD in Australia and New Zealand on March 17, 2004 with Funimation's 2000 English dub and optional Japanese dub audio. Cast Unlike the first two retellings, it features most of the FUNimation voice cast of the anime with the exception of Stephanie Nadolny (Goku). Two more English versions, one released in Europe by AB Groupe and one released in Malaysia by Speedy Video, feature an unknown voice cast. Music *OP (Opening Theme): "Makafushigi Adventure!" *ED (Ending Theme): "Dragon Ball Densetsu" Battles *Lieutenant Blue vs. General Tao *Bora vs. Mifan soldiers *Goku vs. Mifan soldier *Krillin vs. Sergeant Metallic *Launch vs. Sergeant Metallic *Goku vs. Sergeant Metallic *Yamcha vs. Gregor *Yamcha vs. Bora *Bora vs. General Tao *Goku vs. General Tao *Master Roshi and Krillin vs. Mifan soldiers and Sergeant Metallic *Launch vs. Mifan soldiers and Minister Shen *Master Roshi vs. Tien Shinhan *Goku, Arale Norimaki, and Gatchans vs. General Tao *Tien Shinhan vs. Minister Shen *Goku vs. Sergeant Metallic Trivia *While the movie seems to be a retelling of events from the series, Funimation refers to Chiaotzu as an emperor (episode "Goku's Alive!!") and Tao as a general (episode "Double Trouble for Goku"), positions they apparently hold only in this movie. *The 8th Shunsuke Kikuchi music package for the franchise starts here. The cues were designated "M6XX" codes, and this package would make its series debut in Changes. They were recorded on June 22, 1988. *In the Harmony Gold dub the ending scene is altered and voices are added (just like in the Funimation version of Dragon Ball GT episode 64 in which "the end of DB" is treated as a "flashback") also Dragon Ball Densetsu is played in instrumental. Gallery References External links *[http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=2138 Anime News Network - Mystical Adventure] *[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0142248/ Mystical Adventure] at the Site Navigation ca:Bola de Drac: Aventura Mística pt-br:Dragon Ball: Uma Aventura Mìstica de:Dragonball: Makafushigi Daibōken es:Aventura Mística pl:Dragon Ball Film 1 fr:Guide des Episodes#L'aventure mystique ja:ドラゴンボール 摩訶不思議大冒険 Category:Films Category:Dragon Ball films